Spotlight on Research: Shifting the Resilience Narrative

Wednesday, September 18, 2024
by The Community Wellness Team
Research

Shifting the Resilience Narrative: A Qualitative Study of Resilience in the Canadian Post-secondary Context

New research from the University of Calgary explored student perceptions and experiences of resilience, found that an interplay between individual and social/organizational resources was necessary to enable positive outcomes for students. “Support from family, friends, classmates, professors, and other university staff fueled motivation, provided encouragement, and ensured necessary resources were available so students could persevere toward their goals despite the stressors they encountered (Thannhauser et al., 2024).

The findings of the study were consistent with a social-ecological model of resilience, which suggests that resilience is an interactive process consisting of the individual’s ability to negotiate for and draw on the necessary resources (i.e., psychological, social, cultural, environmental) and the relevant systems’ capacity to provide the necessary resources, to regain, sustain or improve wellbeing in the face of adversity (Ungar, 2011; Ungar & Theron, 2020).

You can find the full article at:

Thannhauser, J. E., Heintz, M., Qiao, T., Riggin, A., Dimitropoulos, G., Dobson, K. S., & Szeto, A. C. H. (2024). Shifting the Resilience Narrative: A Qualitative Study of Resilience in the Canadian Post-secondary Context. Emerging Adulthood, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/21676968241273276